Shatter Effect
by Onesmartcookie78
Summary: Post!War AU. The sins of the father are meant to befall the son, or something like that. In this case, the idiocy of a post-dystopian government makes a good Gryffindor go bad and her niece is the one to experience the consequences. My attempt at satire.


Shatter Effect

Onesmartcookie78

**Summary**: Post!War AU. The sins of the father are meant to befall the son, or something like that. In this case, the idiocy of a post-dystopian government makes a good Gryffindor go bad and her niece is the one to experience the consequences.

My attempt at satire.

**Disclaimer**: I own the plot. I claim nothing else.

* * *

Victoire Weasley thought her life would be perfect. She was beautiful. She had a large, loving family. She and Teddy Lupin had practically been engaged in the womb, for crying out loud.

But things went south, as they so often tend to, and she was screwed over, utterly and completely.

What was meant to be the perfect life shattered right in front of her, and there was no hope in fixing anything. And it was all the fault of her stupid Aunt Hermione.

Let's start at the beginning though, and see where that takes us, shall we?

* * *

After the war, Hermione Granger was hired almost immediately to work for the Ministry. Originally, she was brought in to establish a department that would protect all magical creatures. When things started going well, however, they took her away from her life-long dream of harmonious exchanges between all of those living in the magical realm. Sure, her legacy carried on, just not under her meticulous watch.

The Ministry, you see, got rather clever. And when the government thinks it's being clever, things start to go wrong. And when things go wrong in the government, people start getting fired left and right, inflation sets a record high, economy's rubbish, employment's in the toilet, there are protests and boycotts- well, you get the idea.

It was like Voldemort's puppet had never left office. Like the equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition or the Holocaust was upon them in a dystopian world ruled by a madman. It was as though nothing had changed, and all be because the government still wasn't strong enough (or effective enough) to understand the needs of its people. It was this that lead to fear and panic and terror; "anarchy" and "armageddon" would perfectly describe the mindset of the people when they found out the state of the government. How was everything wrecked in the span of a week? The fragile economy had been on its way to recovering, and now this? The Minister had _promised_ to fix everything!

The people demanded that he be sacked; they demanded revolution! They demanded that their taxes stopped being raised when the money was being funnelled into a program no one was sure even _existed_.

So what was this clever idea, you might ask, and how does it relate to the beloved war hero, Hermione Granger? How did its budget completely devastate the government and its people?

That's quite easy to explain, actually. The Minister for Magic decided that it would be a _brilliant_ idea to make a new version of the Time-Tuner, never-mind-that-the-government's-budget-would-best -be-spent-rebuilding-London. Nor the fact that they needed money to try all the former Death Eaters in order to send them legally to Azkaban, or to compensate muggleborns and half-bloods for the horrible way they'd been treated.

Regardless, the government turned Hermione over to the Unspeakables where she learnt to keep her mouth shut, no questions asked. They may have threatened her friends, should she not cooperate, but let's not focus on the blackmail. Instead, the object of the Ministry's fascination should be addressed, as it is key to this tale.

And what might that be? I'm sure you're wondering.

The war. It always leads back to the war. Specifically the battle where all the Time-Turners in the magical world were destroyed. So what was the Minister's resolution? To make new Time-Turners! Indestructible Time-Turners that could go as far back as one desired, and who better to head the project than Miss Hermione Granger, top of her class?

At first, she hated it. She was being forced _against her will_ to do a project that held no benefit to the people. Then, because she's Hermione Granger, she let her morals get in the way of her project. She began to justify using the government's money in a way that the people would not care for. And her justification follows: the Minister for Magic's ultimate goal was certainly to send someone back in time in order to stop the war from ever happening. So really, she was just helping people, though they may not know it.

Little did Hermione know, however, that her niece would make a grave mistake.

* * *

It was Hermione's fault that the Time-Turner was created so quickly; her intelligence and ambition were what caused a project estimated to take 30-40 years to take only 24. It was Ron's fault, however, that the Time-Turner was out in the open. His wife had told him to put it away in her jewellery box, where no one would ever find it until she could get around to testing it. Her jewellery box was well protected with charms and incantations. He got distracted, though, and the device never made it in.

So when Victoire went to her Aunt Hermione's house and her Aunt Hermione asked her to go into her room and get Rose's birthday gift, what was out in the open? The Time-Turner.

Unable to resist the -what seemed to be be a beautiful piece of- jewellery, Victoire had touched the piece, admiring the metalwork. Meaning to simply retrieve the gift and then ask her aunt about the jewellery, Victoire was taken by surprise when her fingers got stuck to the necklace. She tried to pry it off, but she was too late, and her time in her current time period, was up.

* * *

Her uncle being Harry Potter, Victoire had learnt a lot about the war against the Death Eaters. Growing up in a time where Rita Skeetor's books were bestsellers helped her loads, too.

So when she was discovered by a handsome, dark-haired boy nearly identical to her uncle except loads of years younger and far more attractive, and who introduced himself as _Tom Riddle_, Victoire knew she was screwed.

Utterly and completely.

It was her aunt's fault.

_"Shatter Effect":_

_What a perfect phrase to describe it._


End file.
